President
Fox Guarding Narco Hen-House?
March 31, 2006
www.tomflocco.com
Mexico
press said Fox close to top drug trafficker, raising questions about curious
Bush-Clinton links to Fox
[
This story was originally published at WorldNetDaily.com on February 15, 2001.
Interestingly, it was re-posted without censorship but with a great deal of
comment at FreeRepublic.com on July 28, 2001. President Bill Clinton had
earlier met former Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo at the coastal ranch of
alleged narcotics trafficker Roberto Hernandez Ramirez in 1999 for the
U.S.-Mexico "anti-drug" conference, after which new President
Vicente Fox vacationed with Ramirez. Curiously, reports at the same time
revealed that then Texas Governor George Bush "loaned" Fox one of
his top media consultants to assure his election, validating secret Bush links
to the Mexico president (the consultant used fake names to hide the ties
during his 40 visits with Fox), all of which is mostly unknown to the American
people and the United States Congress--well, most of Congress. This, despite
multiple Mexico press allegations.
To add to the outrage, Ramirez is also on the board of directors of New York
CitiBank and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the U.S.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, after having sold his BanaMex bank to
CitiGroup in 2001 for $12.5 billion.
Revealing photo and map evidence with testimonial allegations about Ramirez
ran daily in Por Esto during Clinton's Cancun conference, alleging Ramirez was
running a drug trafficking operation from his huge property, complete with an
airport which allegedly smuggled one-third of Central America's cocaine into
the U.S.A. This, according to the three largest daily newspapers in Mexico,
raising questions about side agendas as President Bush himself meets with Fox
on Thursday and Friday in Cancun, adjacent to the property owned by Ramirez,
who the press referred to as "El Narcotrafficante." Given the
evidence, questions could be raised as to whether the citizen-led
"Minuteman Project" has been having too great an effect upon slowing
cocaine trafficking into America. One could also question senators who say the
U.S.A. does not need a helicopter-patrolled double fence along its border.
Although this controversial story was written five years ago, it is reprinted
here in the hope that American citizens enraged over the Senate Judiciary
Committee's approval of corporate "guest-worker" amnesty will
realize that there is substantial proof and evidence that two U.S. presidents
offer credibility to a Mexican President who consorts and vacations with one
of the largest alleged drug traffickers in the hemisphere, according to
Mexico's own newspapers--and who happens to sit on the board of America's
largest bank. Note whether the corporate media picks up on these links while
Bush is in Mexico this week--or whether the media continues the cover-up.
Thanks to Al Giordano and NarcoNews.com.
TF, March, 30th 2006 ]
By
Tom Flocco
©
2001 WorldNetDaily.com
February 15, 2001
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Vicente
Fox
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There's an
intriguing story left virtually unreported by the mainstream U.S. media
regarding a friendship between alleged Cancun drug-trafficker and banker
Roberto Hernandez Ramirez and Mexican President Vicente Fox.
This is especially strange when you throw in President Bush's Feb. 16 meeting
in Mexico with the nation's new leader.
 |
Few people have
cued into the Mexican president's connections to Bush's own Dallas TV ad
consultant, Robert Allyn. Along with consulting work for Bush, according to a
July 9, 2000, Dallas Morning News report, Allyn worked secretly for three
years on the election campaign of Vicente Fox and would have most likely known
about the alleged connection between Fox and drug runners. The allegations
were made specifically by three Yucatan newspapers: Por Esto! (Dec. 16, 1996),
El Universal (July 8, 2000) and La Jornada (July 9, 2000).
Forbes Magazine reported that Roberto Hernandez, who could not afford an
American Express card in 1980, today earns the largest annual salary in Mexico
-- reported as $29 million per year -- and is a billionaire who runs Mexico's
largest bank.
Por Esto!'s evidence linking Hernandez to narcotics was so solid that a judge
threw out Hernandez's libel suit against the newspaper and editor Mario
Menendez because, as the Feb. 23, 2000, Village Voice reported, "all the
accusations formed by [Menendez] were based on facts." Hernandez did not
return the Voice's calls for comment, but Menendez added in an interview that
Hernandez's "properties were found with cocaine. All of this is confirmed
by the [Mexican] Air Force, thus, there is no possibility of libel."
|
Fox's campaign
consultant, Robert Allyn, had been the creator of a series of controversial
ads during the Republican primaries for Bush's Dallas billionaire friend, Sam
Wyly, a heavy campaign contributor. The TV spots defended Gov. Bush's
environmental policies while questioning the eco record of Arizona Sen. John
McCain.
Presidential candidate Fox used the Bush-connected TV consultant -- reportedly
paid no salary, only ad production costs -- over a three-year period while he
used fake names to avoid the media and ruling party aides. And Allyn made some
40 trips to Mexico, quietly consulting with Fox at his Guanajuato ranch.
The Mexican president also visited Allyn whenever he was in Dallas. However,
the Dallas Morning News report did not reveal who recommended Allyn to the Fox
campaign, why Allyn was basically working for no compensation, or whether --
more importantly -- someone unidentified was paying him for his services to
Fox.
Open borders, borderline behavior
Notwithstanding the drug issue, Fox has been controversial in the eyes of some
U.S. lawmakers because of his call for an open U.S.-Mexican border, while
declaring himself the leader of both Mexico's citizens and the estimated 18
million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans living in the United States. Bush
himself has helped fuel this controversy. At a Feb. 7 White House press
conference, Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told the national media that
Bush "thinks we should have fair trade with Mexico and that we should
have borders that make that possible." No explanation came detailing
Bush's actual border policy.
Further complicating the drug issue, just two weeks ago, as the Washington
Post reported, four senators -- Chris Dodd, D-Ct., John McCain, R-Ariz., Chuck
Hagel, R-Neb., and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. -- moved to cosponsor legislation
to suspend the annual process under which the United States is required to
assess Mexico's performance in combating narcotics trafficking. Continued
certification brings $1.4 billion in U.S. financial assistance in the drug
war.
 |
| Photos by Gonzalo Subirats of Por Esto! 1. Por Esto! Reporters inside Roberto Hernández properties in 1996, investigating what local fishermen reported as a huge cocaine trafficking operation protected by the owner. The cocaine boats entered by night into these estuaries and unloaded their illicit cargo, later to be sent North to the US in small airplanes. 2. BANAMEX president Roberto Hernández Ramírez. 3. The private airfield from which small planes fly north on Hernández properties "without any governmental oversight." 4. 200 kilos of cocaine seized on "Punta Pajaros", owned by Hernández, the exact place where Mexico's President-Elect chose to spend his vacation 120 hours after winning the July 2, 2000 elections, as guest of the banker Hernández. |
However, it seems
that no one has questioned this legislation, when, at the same time, the
Mexican press is reporting that Fox consorts with a narco kingpin. Por Esto!
refers to the controversial Roberto Hernandez Ramirez as "El
Narcotraficante," while editor Mario Menendez claims that "U.S.
authorities are managing the illegal drug trade in Mexico," according to
a Feb. 23, 2000, report in the Village Voice.
No mention was made whether the senators discussed how their bill addresses
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's continuing concern over
narcotrafficking and corruption in Mexico. Moreover, Hernandez has hired
Vernon Jordan's Washington law firm, Akin-Gump, to sue Mario Menendez in New
York City, to further heighten the intrigue and, in effect, put the war
against drugs literally on trial.
El Narcotraficante de Cancun
The Dec. 16, 1996, charge made by Menendez and his paper -- incidentally, the
country's third highest circulation newspaper -- was that Hernandez, Mexican
national banker and No. 289 on the Forbes list of wealthiest men on earth,
operated a key entry point for hundreds of tons of South American cocaine from
his 22 miles of beachfront property south of Cancun.
Reuters News Service reported on Aug. 8, 1998, that the Mexican newspaper
Reforma said "nearly a third of the illegal drugs that pass through the
Caribbean from South America to the United States enter Mexico near the
popular tourist resort of Cancun." Reforma added that "ships -- some
with a capacity of 300 tons -- unload their cargo on high-speed boats that
land in Cancun or very near the luxury resort."
Por Esto! reported stories of local fishermen describing what they called a
huge cocaine trafficking operation protected by Hernandez. The fishermen also
observed shark boats entering the estuaries by night and unloading cocaine
which was then, the allegation goes, loaded onto small planes at the private
airfield on Hernandez's beachfront ranch, before heading north toward the
Texas border.
The Por Esto! story included pictures of alleged narcotrafficker Hernandez's
airfield, planes, plus stacks of cocaine and assorted shoreline garbage
associated with drug-trafficking, such as glue containers, cocaine packaging
and other products with labels naming Columbian drug-cartel cities of Medellin,
Cali and Baranquilla. These same products were also found on seized Columbian
shark boats, according to the Mexican newspaper, with cocaine on board.
In 1997, the government began aggressively patrolling the waters around
Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico's American tourist capital, in response to the
newspaper reports. Then-President Ernesto Zedillo, however, ordered the armed
forces not to enter Hernandez' beachfront estuary properties. And Zedillo was
described as a frequent visitor to Hernandez's Punta Pajaros island ranch --
protected by armed guards 24 hours a day, according to El Universal.
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| Photos by Gonzalo Subirats in Por Esto! 1. Por Esto! editor Renán Castro questions Hernández properties manager Bobby Seattles, who later, with Hernández, files criminal charges against Por Esto!, its publisher, editor, reporter and photographer for "criminal trespass" and "defamation." A Supreme Court Judge, in September 1999, threw out the lawsuit with a finding "All the reports in Por Esto! were based on facts." 2. One of the small aircraft that the newspaper witnessed taking off from the Hernández private airfield at "Punta Pajaros." |
A Mexican Supreme
Court judge threw out a 1997 suit filed by Hernandez against Por Esto!, its
publisher, editor, reporter and photographer in September 1999 -- saying
"the Por Esto! reports were based on facts." And drug-war authority
Al Giordano reported on his NarcoNews.com website that more than 100 Yucatan
Peninsula town councils, unions and church groups have passed resolutions
denouncing the cocaine trafficking and the attacks on Por Esto!
The other president
But Zedillo was not the only president to visit or vacation on the property of
the alleged "El Narcotraficante." President Clinton arrived in the
Yucatan on Feb. 14, 1999, just two days after escaping impeachment, to hold an
anti drug meeting with Hernandez's friend, President Zedillo. At the narco-summit,
Mexico was certified by Clinton as a trusted drug-war ally, and U.S. financial
aid was released.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow, a long-time diplomat who gained
valuable experience in Chile during the 1971-73 Gen. Pinochet-President
Salvador Allende era, organized President Clinton's itinerary. The press corps
covering the trip did not question why Davidow arranged to place Clinton in
such a controversial position while all of the Yucatan was watching -- and
reading the daily Por Esto! pieces.
|
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Jeffrey
Davidow
|
The New York
Times reported that the Clinton-Zedillo "anti-drug" meeting was held
at banker Roberto Hernandez Ramirez's island ranch near Cancun, but never
printed that Hernandez was the most well-known alleged drug trafficker on the
Yucatan Peninsula.
To make sure the American press corps knew about Hernandez's drug ties, Por
Esto! editor Menendez pulled out all the stops and ran a series of three
supplement pieces -- including 350 column inches of text documented by 45
photographs and maps tracing the route of the Columbian cocaine through
Hernandez's properties -- beginning on Feb. 14, 1999, to coincide with
Clinton's arrival in Cancun. Former Boston Phoenix writer Al Giordano called
the series a "journalistic tour de force -- the culmination of a 26-month
investigation. ..."
 |
| "The
Cocaine Peninsula -- 43 kilometers of beach where tons of cocaine have
been unloaded, owned by narco-banker Roberto Hernández Ramírez"
SOURCE: the daily Por Esto! (Mexican Courts Ruled "All of these
reports were based on the facts.") |
However, American
journalists never mentioned the Hernandez story or why President Clinton would
agree to hold his anti-drug meeting at the ranch of a publicly accused cocaine
trafficker. Giordano searched "Lexis-Nexis, the major dailies, wire
services, etc;" however, he found that the Hernandez cocaine story was
"neither published, promoted, criticized, nor rebutted."
Covering the drug summit for his then-employer, the Boston Phoenix, Giordano
said, "The White House press corps, along for the ride, was so
meticulously controlled by their handlers, kept in luxury hotel rooms and
restaurants that were guarded by U.S. Secret Service agents, offered junkets
to Mayan ruins and beaches in exchange for not spending their time
investigating or reporting."
Giordano quoted Por Esto! as charging that "the U.S. government has wide
and deep knowledge of Hernandez's drug-trafficking activities." No
reporter or member of Congress, however, has questioned either former
President Clinton or President George W. Bush about connections to Fox,
Hernandez, Robert Allyn, or what they know about small planes flying north
toward Texas and Florida from the Hernandez ranch after Columbian boats
off-load their cocaine cargos.
Drug war on trial
In March 2000, Por Esto!'s Menendez was invited to present his evidence of
official complicity in cocaine trafficking to the Columbia University Law
School in New York City. However, Roberto Hernandez, through Banamex, has
hired D.C. law giant Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld -- the 7th largest
firm in the U.S. -- to file civil action for libel against both Por Esto!
editor Menendez and NarcoNews.com's Al Giordano.
The legal powerhouse is "waging a battle to discredit media reports that
[Banamex President], Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, is a drug trafficker whose
activities are allegedly protected by powerful politicians in both Mexico and
the United States," according to Metroland News Service.
Thomas McLish, a lawyer with Akin, Gump, said, "Roberto Hernandez is a
man of the highest moral character," according to the Village Voice. And
in November 2000, "Menendez retained Martin Garbus, the legendary First
Amendment lawyer," who said, "I represent a newspaper and a
journalist accused, and from what I understand, they have a good defense of
the libel claim." Moreover, Village Voice reporter Cynthia Cotts says
Garbus finds it "very significant" that Hernandez's libel claims
were thrown out in Mexico.
But Akin, Gump may have another type of problem in attempting to convince a
judge that their client Roberto Hernandez has no drug-trafficking connections.
The Washington Post, in a piece dealing with drug kingpins buying
congressional influence through Washington lobbyists, reported that
"another major D.C. law firm, Akin, Gump, et. al., recently began
lobbying on behalf of Glossco Freezone, an Aruba business controlled by the
Mansur family, some of whose members have been indicted in the United States
on charges of conspiracy to launder drug trafficking proceeds, congressional
sources said. ... Barney J. Skladany Jr., the Akin, Gump partner representing
Glossco, did not return repeated telephone calls for comment."
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| Photos by Gonzalo Subirats of Por Esto! Garbage strewn across beaches on the Cocaine Peninsula of Roberto Hernández Ramírez, almost all of it Colombian-made and associated with cocaine trafficking by narco-sailors: gas tanks thrown away after use by Colombian shark boats, baby powder used by sailors on long journeys, quick sugar food containers, glue containers for fixing plastic cocaine packaging; products made in Medellín, Cali, Baranquilla and Cartagena along Colombia's Caribbean coast. These non-biodegradable products are the same brands as those found on seized Colombian shark boats used to transport cocaine. |
From Coca-Cola
to coke?
On July 2, Vicente Fox won the Mexican presidential election and met with U.S.
Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow in Mexico City on July 7. Giordano's Narco News
Bulletin reported that "Fox then met with former U.S. Ambassador James
Jones, former employee of a company backed by alleged drug trafficker Carlos
Hank Gonzalez (Forbes List billionaire) and recently hired by the Washington
law firm of Mannatt and Phelps, owned by the U.S. Narco Ambassador to the
Dominican Republic and former U.S. Democratic Party chairman Charles Mannatt."
Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported that "President-elect Vicente Fox
returned to Mexico City to restart his activities after vacationing this
weekend at the residence of his friend Roberto Hernandez, president of the
banking group Banamex." Narco News added that "after meeting with
two U.S. operatives, Fox hops on a plane, then a helicopter, and according to
Mexican paper El Universal, heads for Punta Pajaros on the Cocaine Peninsula
as guest of Narco Banker Roberto Hernandez Ramirez."
Questions remain this week as to whether President Bush will support the
aforementioned senators in attempting to suspend drug-war performance
assessment recertification each year for Mexico, thereby freeing Vicente Fox
to conduct the drug war in his own way.
And just recently, according to Metroland News Service, Mexican newspapers
have reported that "Roberto Hernandez Ramirez hosted a private reception
at his ranch this year that was attended by newly elected Mexican President
Vicente Fox, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow and President
Clinton."
Nationally syndicated Mexican columnist Isabel Arvide said in Letras de Cambio,
"Already they've rubbed it in our faces by at least saying who hosted
[President Vicente] Fox at his personal island to rest up from the campaign.
... This is what millions of Mexicans voted for?" Then she added,
"The vote of refusal against the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party)
served so that Roberto Hernandez can continue enjoying his personal island --
with or without 'snow' of all flavors and types. ... We voted in favor of the
drug traffickers' choice?"
And what about political ad consultant Robert Allyn? His introduction of sage
counsel into the Fox campaign, a more "visual" Mexican candidate,
focus groups, satellite paging and Mexican spin-doctors -- for three years
with no compensation -- all served notice that a busy Washington press corps
might have reason to question the campaign aide about potential benefactors,
possibly in both Mexico and the United States, who really wanted to see the
ex-Coca Cola executive assume office. Or could Mr. Allyn have been working for
three years out of the goodness of his heart?
